Features
FKP Scorpio Expands UK Operations
– Daniel Ealam and Scott O
Directors of FKP Scorpio’s newly launched UK business.
FKP has hired former DHP Family promoters Daniel Ealam and Scott O’Neill, who will team up with FKP Scorpio founder and CEO Folkert Koopmans to direct the UK arm of the business, which was established in 2018.
Ealam and O’Neill both held senior positions at UK promoter, artist management company and venue operator DHP Family. Ealam’s career there began in 2001. After rising through the management ranks of DHP’s venue portfolio he started promoting shows in 2005.
Ollie Millington/Redferns via Getty Images – Frank Carter performing at Jongleurs in Nottingham during DHP Family
Back then he was still performing with Pure Love, the band he founded with guitarist Jim Carroll.
Besides spearheading the award-winning three-city metropolitan festival Dot To Dot, and heading up the company’s artist management division, Ealam became DHP Family’s director of live in 2016.
O’Neill started independently promoting shows in Manchester while at University in 2006. Soon he was promoting tours nationally and programming Manchester Cathedral’s live music output.
He caught the eye of DHP Family, where he joined in 2010. O’Neill launched the London metropolitan festival Mirrors in 2015 and was responsible for many of the DHP’s outdoor concerts, eventually becoming a director of DHP Live in 2019.
“Both have promoted thousands of shows up and down the UK from 80 to 80,000 capacity and sold millions of tickets in the process,” according to the hiring announcement by FKP Scorpio.
Highlights include 18 stadiums since 2015 and outdoor events at Cardiff Castle, Leeds Roundhay Park, Ipswich Chantry Park and Bristol Filton Airfield.
Artists Ealam and O’Neill have worked with include Ed Sheeran, Catfish and The Bottlemen, Massive Attack, The xx, The Lumineers, The War On Drugs, Anne-Marie, Burna Boy, Adele, Easy Life, Mumford and Sons, Fat Freddy’s Drop and Ellie Goulding, as well as the 50th anniversary tour of Brian Wilson’s Pet Sounds album.
Alongside Koopmans, Ealam and O’Neill, the FKP Scorpio UK board includes Barry Campbell and James Cassidy, who have orchestrated the live touring of the BBC Earth nature documentaries, Blue Planet II and Planet Earth II Live-In-Concert, in arenas throughout the UK and Europe.
The 14 date UK and Ireland arena tour for Blue Planet II Live in Concert, which went on to sell over 65,000 tickets, was the main reason FKP Scorpio established a UK presence in 2018. It has since taken on the project management of all BBC Earth live shows including Planet Earth II, Blue Planet II and Seven Worlds One Planet.
According to the announcement, “the new FKP UK team are open for business from this week and have big plans to successfully grow FKP Scorpio UK, as the group, which is part of the pan-European promoter network Events Live, has done in many European countries since 1990.”
FKP Scorpio ranked on number 7 on Pollstar’s year-end ranking of the world’s most successful promoters in 2019, with 2,754,008 sold tickets reported and a gross of $192,736,861.
Julia Schwendner – Hurricane 2019
Atmosphere.
The company is also one of Europe’s biggest festival promoters, owning and operating the twin-festivals Southside and Hurricane, which ranked three and four on this year’s Magna Charta, grossing $11,928,743 and $11,384,729, respectively.
FKP has offices in Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Poland, Netherlands, Austria, Finland, Belgium, and now the UK.
Koopmans commented: “We are very much looking forward to working with Daniel and Scott, who have built up an excellent reputation and have excellent contacts. We are convinced that with their support we will be able to significantly expand FKP Scorpio’s activities in the UK”.
Ealam and O’Neill released a joint statement: “We are so excited to build FKP Scorpio in the UK. We have long admired the company’s ethos and ethics and we truly believe that it is a force for good within the industry and expanding at a time when we need strong promoters with good values working across Europe.
“Folkert shares our vision for the business and we have big plans to make this a huge success and support our artists, agents and managers and give fans the ultimate live experiences.”